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For evidence of that, just look at the collection of letters of support we have received from industry, academia, and professional organizations, including letters from TechNet, a national network of CEOs and senior executives from the leading technology and biotechnology companies; the National Alliance of Business; and STANCO 25 Professor of Economics at Stanford University, Paul Romer, a leading
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These industry, academic, and educational leaders recognize as do we, that in our knowledge-based economy, we must have people who know what they're doing, and that is why they have made this problem and our legislation a top priority. We are grateful for their knowledge and their support, and we look forward to working with them to better harvest the enormous potential of America's workforce.
I ask unanimous consent that letters of support for the Tech Talent bill, from the following organizations and individuals, be printed in the RECORD: TechNet, Professor Paul Romer, National Alliance of Business, Semiconductor Industry Association, American Astronomical Society, K-12 Science , Mathematics, Engineering & Technology Coalition, General Electric, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and the American Society for Engineering Education.
There being no objection, the additional material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
TECHNET,
Palo Alto, CA, October 8, 2001.
Hon. JOSEPH
LIEBERMAN,
Hon. BILL FRIST,
Hon. BARBARA MIKULSKI,
Hon. CHRISTOPHER S. ``KIT'' BOND,
Hon. PETE DOMENICI,
Hon. SHERWOOD BOEHLERT,
Hon. JOHN B. LARSON.
DEAR SENATORS LIEBERMAN, FRIST, MIKULSKI, BOND, AND DOMENICI, AND REPRESENTATIVES BOEHLERT, AND LARSON: On behalf of TechNet's 250 technology industry executives, we are writing to lend our strong endorsement and support for your legislation to increase the technically trained workforce in the United States: the Tech Talent Bill. TechNet considers the lack of a highly skilled American workforce a serious threat to our nation's future economic and technology growth.
Recent economic studies have shown that technological progress accounts for more then half of the U.S. economic growth in the post-war period. Correspondingly, a workforce highly trained in science , mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) is fundamental to our nation's ability to remain competitive. Yet despite predictions that the number of jobs requiring technical skills will grow by 51% over the next decade, from the late 80's to the late 90's the number of earned bachelor's degrees has decreased by 18% in engineering and by 36% in math and computer science .
We commend you for taking the lead with a bold and innovative approach to reverse this perilous trend. The Tech Talent bill would authorize funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to distribute grants to colleges and universities that agree to specific increases in the number of students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents obtaining degrees in science , math , engineering and technology. The NSF would solicit and competitively award grants, based on a peer-review evaluation, to proposals from colleges and universities with promising and innovative programs to increase the number of graduates in the specified disciplines.
A well-prepared workforce coupled with a strong emphasis on R&D is the only way to ensure a healthier, economically solid, and technologically advanced future for America. We appreciate your steadfast support of policies toward this end, and we urge you to press forward with this legislation in both chambers. Please let us know how we can best support a swift passage of the Tech Talent bill. Thank you for considering our views on this important issue.
Best regards,
Jim Barksdale, Partner, The Barksdale Group.
John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Claufield, & Byers.
Rick White, President & CEO, TechNet.
Carol Bartz, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Autodesk, Inc.
Craig Barrett, CEO, Intel Corporation.
Eric Benhamou, Chairman, 3Com.
Hale Boggs, Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.
Bob Brisco, CEO, CARSDIRECT.COM.
Sheryle Bolton, Chairman & CEO, Scientific Learning Corporation.
Richard M. Burnes, Jr., Partner, Charles River Ventures.
Daniel H. Case III, Chairman & CEO, JP Morgan H & Q.
Bruce Claflin, President & CEO, 3Com.
Ron Conway, Founder and General Partner, Angel Investors, LLP.
Joe Cullinane, CEO Telum Group, Inc.
Dean DeBiase, Chairman Autoweb.
Aart de Geus, CEO and Chairman, Synopsys.
Paul Deninger, Chairman & CEO, Broadview International LLC.
Gary Dickerson, Chief Operating Officer, KLA-Tencor Corporation.
William H. Draper III, General Partner, Draper Richards L.P.
Thomas J. Engibous, Chairman, President & CEO, Texas Instruments.
Carl Feldbaum, President, Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Boris Feldman, Partner, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.
Ken Goldman, CFO, Siebel Systems.
Christopher Greene, President & CEO, Greene Engineers.
Michael D. Goldberg, Managing Director, JasperCapital.
Nancy Heinen, Senior VP, General Counsel, Apple.
Jeffrey O. Henley, Executive VP & CFO, Oracle Corporation.
Bob Herbold, Executive Vice President & COO, Microsoft Corporation.
Casey Hoffman, CEO & Founder, Supportkids.com.
Guy Hoffman, Venture Partner, TL Ventures.
Kingdon R. Hughes, President, Rush Network.
Scott Jones, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Escient.
Nicholas Konidaris, CEO, Advantest America, Inc.
David Lane, Partner, Diamondhead Venture Management LLC.
Paul Lippe, CEO, SKOLAR.
Arthur D. Levinson, PhD, Chairman & CEO, Genetech.
Ken Levy, Chairman, KLA-Tencor Corporation.
Lori P. Mirek, President & CEO, Currenex--Global Financial Exchange.
Henry Samueli, PhD, Co-Chairman & CTO, Broadcom Corporation.
Douglas G. Scrivner, General Counsel, Accenture.
Stratton Sclavos, President & CEO, VeriSign Inc.
Gary Shapiro, President & CEO, Consumer Electronics Association.
Rohit Shukla, President & CEO, LARTA.
Gregory W. Slayton, President and CEO, ClickAction.
Ted Smith, Chairman, FileNET.
Robert W. Sterns, Principal, Sternhill Partners.
George Sundheim III, President, Doty, Sundheim & Gilmore.
John Young, Retired President & CEO, Hewlett Packard.
--
STANFORD UNIVERSITY,
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS,
Stanford, CA, October 10, 2001.
Senator CHRISTOPHER
BOND,
Senator PETE DOMENICI,
Senator WILLIAM FRIST,
Senator JOSEPH LIEBERMAN,
Senator BARBARA MIKULSKI,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
DEAR SENATORS BOND, DOMENICI, FRIST, LIEBERMAN, AND MIKULSKI: Your Tech Talent bill will reinvigorate one of the most successful policies in the history of our nation--government support for broad undergraduate training in science and engineering. Since the end of the 19th century, people trained in these areas have turned scientific opportunity into technological progress. With their help, we harnessed the twin engines of the market and technology. Together, these engines powered the United States into our current position of unchallenged worldwide political and economic leadership.
Unfortunately, success breeds complacency. In recent decades, our achievements in undergraduate science education have fallen behind those in many other countries.
In the domain of the market, our government fostered growth by doing less. It stood aside and gave people the freedom to start new ventures, introduce new products, and improve on old ways of doing things. By contrast, in the domain of technology, our government fostered growth by doing more, but in a way that supported market competition. The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 created a new type of university, one committed not to an elite study of art or science for its own sake. Instead, these new institutions emphasized the practical application of knowledge. They offered instruction in the ``agricultural and mechanic arts'' and the various branches of science , with ``special reference to their application in the industries of life.'' The land grant universities created and supported by these acts helped many more farmers and miners, tinkerers and inventors, entrepreneurs and managers, engineers and researchers compete in the market by developing new technologies or applying technologies developed by others.
Since World War II, the federal government has wisely increased its support for basic research by current university professors and graduate training of future professors. Unfortunately, this support seems to have come at the expense of our early commitment to undergraduate education in science and engineering. At the beginning of the 20th century, this commitment put us far ahead of the rest of the world. At the beginning of the 21st century, we lag behind many other countries according to such basic measures as the fraction of all 24-year-olds who receive an undergraduate degree in engineering or the natural sciences.
Your bill can begin our return to worldwide leadership in undergraduate science and engineering education. It will reward colleges and universities that devote more effort to teaching, that develop innovative instructional materials, that pull students into science instead of ``weeding them out.''
If we can increase the number of undergraduates who receive science and engineering degrees our companies will have more highly skilled workers. Our schools will have more math and science teachers. Our Ph.D.
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Sincerely yours,
PAUL M. ROMER.
--
OCTOBER 5, 2001.
Hon. JOSEPH I.
LIEBERMAN,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
DEAR SENATOR LIEBERMAN: We commend you for your leadership in sponsoring the Technology Talent bill. This bill focuses attention on an important workforce issue for business and for America's growing knowledge-based economy--the need to increase the number of U.S. students graduating with degrees in mathematics, science , engineering, and technology from the nation's universities and community colleges.
American businesses face a constant challenge to find sufficient numbers of professionals with proficiency in these key disciplines. The number of students graduating with degrees in these fields has both failed to keep pace with an ever-increasing demand, and actually declined. Since 1990, for example the number of bachelor degrees in electrical engineering awarded at U.S. universities has declined 37 percent. We must address this need if the United States is to maintain its economic and technological leadership.
The demonstration grant program established by the Tech Talent bill will provide new incentives for universities, colleges, and community colleges to increase the number of graduates with bachelor and associate degrees in science , mathematics, engineering and technology. The bill also will encourage mentoring, bridge programs from secondary to postsecondary education, and creative approaches for traditionally underrepresented groups to earn degrees in these disciplines.
We look forward to working with you and your colleagues to secure enactment of this legislation.
Sincerely,
3M Company; AeA.; AT&T.; Business-Higher
Education Forum; Compaq Computer Corporation; IBM Corporation; Information
Technology Association of America; Intel Corporation; Minority Business
RoundTable; Motorola; National Alliance of Business; National Venture Capital
Association; Northern Virginia Technology Council; SchoolTone Alliance;
Semiconductor Industry Association; Software and Information Industry
Association; TechNet; Texas Instruments; Verizon; and Williams.
--
SIA,
San Jose, CA, October 3, 2001.
Re Tech Talent
Act.
Hon. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN,
U.S. Senate, Hart Senate Office
Building, Washington, DC.
DEAR SENATOR LIEBERMAN: The Semiconductor Industry Association applauds your introduction of the Technology Talent Act as an important action to expand the technically trained workforce in the United States.
Over the next five to fifteen years, the semiconductor manufacturing process that the industry has used for the past thirty years will have reached its physical limits. It will take significant investments to develop the human resources necessary to develop replacement processes and electronic device structures. Absent these investments, the continued productivity gains that our economy has enjoyed from information technology advances will be lost.
The demonstration program established by the Tech Talent bill will provide incentive for universities, colleges and community colleges to increase the number of graduates with bachelors and associates' degrees in science , mathematics, engineering and technology. We are pleased that the bill encourages mentoring programs, bridge programs and other innovative approaches to helping increase the number of U.S. students graduating with degrees in these disciplines. That should not only help to increase the supply by retaining more of the students who are already enrolled, but also help attract more students from traditionally under-represented groups to pursue careers in our industry and other high tech sectors.
We look forward to working with you and your colleagues to help ensure the legislation's swift and favorable consideration. Thank you again for your leadership on this issue.
Sincerely,
George Scalise,
President.
--
AAS,
Pasadena, CA, September 10, 2001.
Re Tech Talent
Bill.
Hon. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN,
Washington, DC.
DEAR SENATOR LIEBERMAN: I am writing to thank you and your colleagues for introducing the ``Tech Talent Bill''. I will work to support this legislation as it moves through Congress.
As you know, the decline in our technical workforce is negatively affecting our national economy and worldwide competitiveness. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has tracked the number of students earning doctorates from U.S. institutions in the physical sciences since 1962. Today, roughly 1,350 doctorates are awarded each year. In 1970, this number was nearly 1,600. Although this statistic does fluctuate from year to year, it has steadily declined over the last several years, dropping 11% between 1994 and 1998. Additionally, the fraction of foreign students earning doctorates has increased dramatically. According to AIP statistics, 46% of physics doctorates are foreign nationals.
The Administrator of NASA, Dan Goldin, highlighted this problem in a recent article in the Atlantic magazine (September 2001). In this article, he points out that due to the small number of qualified engineers and physical scientists, design, construction and operation of space probes is becoming difficult. Although not for certain, he suggests that this shortage may have played a role in the recent failures of the Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter. According to Mr. Goldin, nearly as many students earn undergraduate degrees in parks, recreation and leisure as earn degrees in electrical engineering. This is a shocking fact for a Nation built on technology and science .
By motivating universities to increase the number of students earning physical science degrees, this legislation will have a direct impact on this problem. I strongly support the ``Tech Talent Bill'' and hope to work with you to ensure its passage in this Congressional term.
Sincerely,
Anneila Sargent,
President.
--
K-12 SCIENCE , MATHEMATICS, ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION COALITION,
October 15, 2001.
Hon. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
DEAR SENATOR LIEBERMAN: The K-12 Science , Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education Coalition commends you and Senators Frist, Mikulski, and Bond for introducing the ``Tech Talent'' bill, designed to increase the United States' technically trained workforce. It is imperative to develop a highly skilled workforce to maintain our national security and foster future economic growth. We believe that the journey begins before college.
We are pleased that your legislation encourages universities to partner with community colleges, industry organizations, professional societies and local schools to pave the way for students of all ages and backgrounds to further their interests in science , mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) coursework and career paths.
In October of this year, the deans of engineering and the deans of education from 50 universities met in concert to develop strategic collaborations to enhance K-12 teacher preparation in SMET and to invigorate engineering education. Collaborations of this type can and should be replicated by more universities and across all science , mathematics, engineering, and technological disciplines.
This bill will assist in the development and implementation of innovative approaches to increasing enrollments and graduates in key SMET degrees, which is critical to our economy, our national security, and the future job prospects of our children. Providing incentives and rewards to educational institutions for increasing SMET enrollments and graduates is an excellent approach to jumpstart that process.
We applaud your dedication and foresight in protecting and enhancing America's future workforce.
If we can be of further assistance, please contact Patti Burgio at 202.785.7385.
--
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